Short-Term Effect of Biochar on Soil Organic Carbon Improvement and Nitrous Oxide Emission Reduction According to Different Soil Characteristics in Agricultural Land: A Laboratory Experiment

Abstract

Biochar application has been considered as a promising solution to address the effects of modern agriculture on climate change. However, there is a lack of research on the biochar application of greenhouse gas emissions based on poor soils in Korean agricultural land. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of biochar application according to different soil characteristics on soil organic carbon (SOC) improvement and greenhouse gas reduction. The incubation experiments were conducted for 49 days and used different feedstock (barley straw and poultry manure) and biochar application rates (0, 5, 10, and 20-ton ha−1) in four soil characteristics (upland, U; greenhouse, G; converted land, C; reclaimed land, R). The results of this study showed that the SOC increased significantly in all soils after biochar application. The increasing SOC rate was the highest in poor soil. Biochar 20-ton ha−1 treatment significantly reduced N2O emissions by 33.2% compared with the control. Barley straw biochar significantly reduced N2O emissions from all soils. Barley straw biochar decreased approximately 74.5% of N2O emissions compared with poultry manure biochar. Poultry manure biochar improved SOC and reduced N2O emissions in poor soil. However, in poultry manure biochar treatment in U and G soil, N2O emissions increased. In conclusion, barley straw biochar application was found to suppress N2O emissions and improve the SOC in all soil characteristics of agricultural land. In addition, the soil carbon storage effect and N2O reduction effect of biochar were the highest in poor soil. Thus, the biochar application can be a potential agricultural practice for improving soil quality and decreasing N2O emissions in domestic agricultural soil.

The Effects of Biochar Incorporation on the CO2, N2O, and CH4 Emissions from the Soils of Stallholder Palm Oil Plantations, Jambi Province Indonesia

“…The incorporation of 10 and 20 ton/ha biochar was followed by a significant decrease in N2O emissions from day 5-40, but it increases on day 60 (Figure 4B and Figure 4C). The research published by Cayuela et al (2019), Chen et al (2020), and Lee et al (2022) provides support for the findings of this study. Because of its ability to buffer acid, biochar is crucial in reducing the release of N2O gas from the soil as a result of pH variations.…”

“…Biochar with a high C/N ratio could stabilize N in the soil and caused a low N2O emission (Lee et al, 2022). The biochar used in this study has a C/N ratio in the 35.9-37.7% range, which is 51.8%-61.6% greater than biochar made from barley straw and 54.1-63.4% higher than biochar made from poultry manure (Lee et al, 2022).…”

“…However, about 20% of the carbon present in the biochar parent material can be searched into the soil, considering the rate at which agricultural biomass loses carbon during the production of biochar (Lee et al, 2022).…”

“…Biochar with a high C/N ratio could stabilize N in the soil and caused a low N2O emission (Lee et al, 2022). The biochar used in this study has a C/N ratio in the 35.9-37.7% range, which is 51.8%-61.6% greater than biochar made from barley straw and 54.1-63.4% higher than biochar made from poultry manure (Lee et al, 2022). Nitrous oxide gas emissions from the soils of oil palm plantations incorporated with 10-ton/ha and 20-ton/ha biochar were considerably lower than the control soils (p< 0.05).…”

Biochar application ameliorated the nutrient content and fungal community structure in different yellow soil depths in the karst area of Southwest China

“…These results may be due to the fact that the biochar has little available nitrogen, which increases the nitrogen content in soil ( Zhang et al., 2021 ). The application of biochar can also reduce N leaching losses and improve N fixation capacity ( Lee et al., 2022 ). The experimental results also showed that the TN content of HB treatment in 10–40 cm decreased significantly with increasing soil depth, which indicated that the biochar could fix nitrogen in the topsoil (0–10 cm) and reduce the leaching of N from the lower soil layer.…”